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In 1904, a blight ravaged the American chestnut trees, killing most, and severely weakening the bulk of the remainder, turning them into small coppice stools whose trunks typically fail before fruiting age is achieved.
To make matters worse, when the chestnut trees began to die off, land owners had the vast majority of them logged off to capture their value, fearing that they would all otherwise die. This over-reaction caused almost all of the remaining trees, some of which may have had resistance to the blight, to be obliterated.
But there have been, over the last century, specimens that demonstrate a resistance to the blight. others have been created by hybridizing with other chestnuts, and crossing back to the resistant specimens of American chestnut, so that the resulting trees are almost entirely American chestnut in their genotype and phenotype, but have improved resistance.
One of these almost-completely American hybrids is the Dunstan Chestnut.
I became interested in restoring the chestnut when I found a handful of chestnut trees still alive on my property. They have multiple stems that grow from very old root systems, but the stems die when they get to about 8' tall. They all likely pre-date the blight, and are severely overtopped, and all succumb to the blight. But they keep producing new shoots.
So i first determined to clear around them, in order that they might grow faster, perhaps reaching fruiting age, and, by cross-pollenating with each other, might produce offspring with resistance.
Then I ordered two Dunstan hybrid chestnut trees. They arrived today. They will naturally cross-pollenate with my native 100% American chestnut trees, and I assume that the offspring, though more thoroughly American chestnut than the original hybrids, will have some specimens that are resistant, These will survive where the suceptible specimens will die off. Within the next 30 years, I envision that I will have restored the American Chestnut to its original niche on my property, and that the trees will drop fruit and spread to the state forest next door.
To make matters worse, when the chestnut trees began to die off, land owners had the vast majority of them logged off to capture their value, fearing that they would all otherwise die. This over-reaction caused almost all of the remaining trees, some of which may have had resistance to the blight, to be obliterated.
But there have been, over the last century, specimens that demonstrate a resistance to the blight. others have been created by hybridizing with other chestnuts, and crossing back to the resistant specimens of American chestnut, so that the resulting trees are almost entirely American chestnut in their genotype and phenotype, but have improved resistance.
One of these almost-completely American hybrids is the Dunstan Chestnut.
I became interested in restoring the chestnut when I found a handful of chestnut trees still alive on my property. They have multiple stems that grow from very old root systems, but the stems die when they get to about 8' tall. They all likely pre-date the blight, and are severely overtopped, and all succumb to the blight. But they keep producing new shoots.
So i first determined to clear around them, in order that they might grow faster, perhaps reaching fruiting age, and, by cross-pollenating with each other, might produce offspring with resistance.
Then I ordered two Dunstan hybrid chestnut trees. They arrived today. They will naturally cross-pollenate with my native 100% American chestnut trees, and I assume that the offspring, though more thoroughly American chestnut than the original hybrids, will have some specimens that are resistant, These will survive where the suceptible specimens will die off. Within the next 30 years, I envision that I will have restored the American Chestnut to its original niche on my property, and that the trees will drop fruit and spread to the state forest next door.
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